Haliburton’s status a great unknown for Pacers

INDIANAPOLIS:

Tyrese Haliburton would not be playing today if this were a regular season game. He probably would be sidelined for a week or two if this were December or January.

But this is June. It's the NBA Finals. The Indiana Pacers' season is on the line. That's why -- even with a strained right calf -- Haliburton is trying to find any way possible to play in the win-or-else Game 6 that awaits against the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight.

Will the Pacers' star guard and Olympic gold medallist play or not?

That's the big question going into Game 6, and there probably won't be an answer until a few hours before the 8:40 p.m. Eastern tip-off time.

"I think I have to be as smart as I want to be," Haliburton said yesterday. "Have to understand the risks, ask the right questions. I'm a competitor. I want to play. I'm going to do everything in my power to play. That's just what it is."

The good news for the Pacers: Haliburton did everything the team did in practice yesterday. The bad news: That only involved sitting through 25 minutes of film, a 30-minute walkthrough and then some light shooting while basically flat-footed the whole time.

"He'll go through the day tomorrow," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said yesterday. "Our prep session is tomorrow late afternoon. They'll get together and do some testing. That will determine whether he plays or not. If he doesn't play, we have a plan, obviously, if we're without him."

Haliburton is trying every treatment he can think of right now in order to help his strained right calf, a diagnosis that was confirmed by an MRI exam on Tuesday. Hyperbaric chambers, needles, massage, electronic stimulation, special tape.

Whatever it takes.

"We got soldiers on this team," Pacers forward Obi Toppin said. "We're going to try to play through any type of injuries or anything. Ty is a soldier. He's most likely going to be good. We don't know yet."

Haliburton was dealing with an ankle injury earlier in the series and now has the calf matter to deal with, as well; it's not clear if the two are related, and really, it doesn't matter at this point.

The calf issue presented itself during Monday's Game 5 loss in Oklahoma City. Haliburton played through it for most of his 34 minutes, but failed to make a field goal in the game and Indiana lost to Oklahoma City 120-109 -- falling behind 3-2 in the title series.

-AP